I went with producer Angela Kim to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory this week to talk to NASA scientist Robert Green about how he's using a special piece of equipment called AVIRIS to try to come up with volume estimates of the oil spill. Here's what we learned:

Other scientists are also trying to estimate the rate the oil was spewing out of the well. The Flow Rate Technical Group is in the process of working up new estimates--which they expect to have out soon. Their current flow guesses: between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day.